Party moves to combat accusations of drift and defeatism

A RATTLED Green leadership last night moved to try and rubbish claims of spinelessness in its dealings with Fianna Fáil.

Party big guns attempted to return fire on outgoing Senator Déirdre de Búrca by claiming she had other reasons for quitting than those stated in her damning letter of resignation. Green president Senator Dan Boyle, who himself had a resignation “wobble” recently over Government banking policies, insisted Ms de Búrca went for “personal reasons” but would not elaborate on what they might be.

“She has been semi-detached since the euro-elections and she was thinking of herself and her own life. She would have decided politically after the election that she wouldn’t have seen a future for herself in politics,” he said.

The comments followed Green TD Paul Gogarty’s attack on his former party colleague in which he blasted Ms de Búrca’s claims the Greens had sold their integrity to become “add-ons” to Fianna Fáil as “outrageous”.

Mr Gogarty, who recently was forced to apologise to the Dáil for using the F-word in the chamber, claimed Ms de Búrca was attacking the Greens to “deflect” attention from her real reasons for going. This is believed to be a reference to her attempt to get an job within the top team of Ireland’s new European commissioner Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. The party denied accusations of drift and defeatism in its dealings with Fianna Fáil, which Ms de Búrca said was “running rings” around the junior coalition partners.

But there seemed confusion when Green TDs were pressed on Ms de Búrca’s claims the parliamentary party was now meeting in a daily session to plot how to cope with Fianna Fáil tactics. Environment Minister Eamon Ryan said they did meet each day, only to be contradicted by justice spokesman Ciarán Cuffe who said that they did not.

Mr Ryan went on to insist the Greens had made a big impact on the Government and pushed through key priority policies, such as civil partnerships for same sex couples and a carbon tax.

Mr Gormley dismissed claims the party was “paralysed” because it knew it would get a drubbing from voters if it stood up to Fianna Fáil and quit Government. The Environment Minister said he was ready to “take it on the chin” from voters but believed the Greens could do more for the country within the Government, where the party was having a substantial policy impact which annoyed some Fianna Fáil TDs. “You only had to look at the policies being implemented over the last week to see how much influence the party is exerting on Government,” he said.